At the core of all my government policies, is the welfare of gareeb, peedit, Dalit, vanchhit. My government has taken may initiatives to improve the quality of life of people, says President Pranab Mukherjee.

President Pranab Mukherjee kicked off the Budget session today with a speech addressing a joint session of Parliament. The Finance Minister will present the Budget tomorrow in the Lok Sabha. The Budget will be presented for the first time on February 1, moving away from the tradition of presenting it on the last day of February every year. Also, there will be no separate Rail Budget this year, as it has been merged with the Union Budget.

In his speech, President Mukherjee highlighted some of the work the government has done and also praised the citizens for the resilience shown in the fight against black money. Below are some of the key points he made in the speech:

This is a historic session heralding advancement of budget cycle and merger of general budget with rail budget for the first time: President Pranab Mukherjee